This is the bonus chapter for reaching 450 Powerstones.
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Zeke stared at the icon for [Basic Physique Enhancement (Type I)] in his vision, his breathing growing slightly heavier.
Below the icon was a concise description:
[Price: 100 Imperial Coins]
[Effect: Slightly increases bone density, muscle efficiency, and maximum stamina.]
[Adaptation Period: 24-48 standard hours.]
[Augmentation Duration: Approx. 1 standard hour.]
[Warning: The vessel must remain in an absolutely safe environment during the augmentation process. External interference may lead to augmentation failure, tissue necrosis, or unpredictable mutation.]
One hundred coins.
For players who had just experienced the looting frenzy in the industrial zone, this was no longer the astronomical figure it had been when they first entered the game. Anyone could afford it.
Zeke currently had 4,987 Imperial Coins in his pocket.
This was the result of his desperate, frantic recycling run in the East Sector warehouse during their final wave. He had spent some of it during the day buying tools.
"One hundred coins..." Zeke calculated in his mind. "I actually have enough to buy all the Basic Physique Enhancements from Type I to III."
Type II enhancement cost 500 coins, providing metabolic optimization and neurological enhancement, but the prerequisite was that Type I completion had to reach 30% or higher.
The system didn't specify how this completion rate was calculated, but knowing the nature of the Warhammer world, it probably required either grinding it out over time or... tempering it through real combat.
"I'll start with Type I to test the waters," Zeke decided.
This decision wasn't impulsive.
The base was just established. Outside lay an eerie jungle, and the Four Great Factions controlled this chaotic planet. Power was the hard currency at all times.
More importantly, he needed to forge a path for the other players.
As the provisional head of the [Crimson Dawn] Chapter, he couldn't just order others to move bricks while hiding in the back himself.
The Warhammer universe respected power, and it respected examples.
"Cogboy! Tax Bro! Schrödinger Bro!"
Zeke climbed down from the watchtower and found the three of them studying a metal plate with a blurry cog emblem dug out from the ruins.
"I'm going to get an augmentation. The system says it takes an hour of absolute safety. Can you guys watch my back?"
[Fugitive Cogboy of the Mechanicus] looked up. "The augmentation process requires observation and recording."
"This is an excellent opportunity to gather data on the System's modification mechanics."
"Sure!"
Tax Bro slapped his thigh. "Perfect time to see if this hundred coins is worth it! If the effects are badass, I'm getting one too!"
Schrödinger Bro nodded. "Safety first."
"Let's go to the dormitory area. It's relatively enclosed."
The four of them walked toward the newly reinforced prefabricated building.
Calling it a dormitory was a stretch; it was really just one massive room partitioned with scrap metal plates and wood into barely human-sized cubicles, the floors lined with hay and cloth redeemed from the shop.
The conditions were crude enough to make any Imperial Noble scoff, but for players who had just slept collectively on the concrete floors of the industrial zone, this was paradise.
Zeke found a spot deep inside and lay down on a makeshift bed tied together with wooden boards and vines.
He took a deep breath, pulled up his personal panel, navigated to [Augmentation], and tapped [Basic Physique Enhancement (Type I)] once more.
[Confirm Basic Physique Enhancement (Type I) Modification?]
[This modification will consume: 100 Imperial Coins.]
[Please remain stationary during the modification process. Any severe external interference may lead to unpredictable consequences.]
[Estimated Duration: 58-62 standard minutes.]
"Confirm," Zeke willed.
His account balance instantly dropped from 4,987 to 4,887.
Immediately after, he felt his body grow heavy.
It wasn't a physical heaviness, but a sense of being... locked in place.
It was as if countless invisible threads hung from the void, pinning him to the wooden bed.
"Here it comes," Zeke said in a low voice.
The next second, a countdown appeared in the corner of his vision: 59:58, 59:57...
Then, an anomaly occurred.
The air above his bed began to warp.
It wasn't the blasphemous writhing of a Warp rift, but a ripple carrying the beauty of precision machinery.
In the center of the ripple, a speck of silver light appeared and rapidly expanded into a circular portal about half a meter in diameter.
The interior of the portal wasn't darkness or starlight. It was a constantly shifting phantom image composed of countless tiny gears, piston drive rods, and energy conduits—like the interior of some hyper-complex machine.
"By the Omnissiah..."
[Fugitive Cogboy of the Mechanicus]'s eyes focused, staring at the sight before him that completely defied any Mechanicus technology he knew of.
From the portal, three mechanical arms extended.
They were not the clumsy bionic arms forged by human artisans, but precision creations gleaming with a cold metallic luster.
The joints were spherical universal joints, and the tips were tool heads that could transform as needed. Currently, they were equipped with:
A syringe loaded with an amber liquid.
A probe tipped with a high-speed rotating micro-drill.
And a mechanical hand whose terminus split into multiple slender operating tentacles.
"What the..."
Tax Bro held it in for a long time before finally uttering, "These special effects... are flashier than the Servitors in a Mechanicus temple!"
Schrödinger Bro didn't speak, but his eyes were fixed on the movements of the mechanical arms.
The first mechanical arm's syringe slowly descended, the needle gleaming coldly in the dim light.
Zeke could clearly see countless microscopic, seemingly living metallic particles suspended in the amber liquid inside the tube.
"Here comes the prick!" He instinctively tried to tense his muscles.
But his body was already immobilized by some kind of force field; he couldn't even twitch a finger.
The needle pierced precisely into the side of his neck.
A sharp sting, followed instantly by a cold fluid rushing into his veins.
[Anesthetic Injected... Vessel consciousness remains awake, pain feedback reduced to 5%... Muscle relaxant active...]
The system prompts flashed through his consciousness.
Zeke felt his body completely go limp.
Yet his mind was exceptionally clear.
He could even feel the amber liquid flowing through his blood vessels to his entire body. Wherever it passed, his cells seemed to quiver slightly.
The second mechanical arm's micro-bone drill powered up.
The high-speed rotating drill emitted a faint hum as it slowly approached Zeke's right humerus.
"Holy shit! It's going to drill into his bones?!" Tax Bro nearly jumped.
"It should be a localized puncture, to facilitate the direct injection of enhancement nanite swarms or genetic catalysts."
Cogboy analyzed quickly, his voice carrying the excitement of a mad scientist.
"The efficiency is far higher than traditional blood circulation dispersion... but this technology... orthodox Mechanicus modification surgeries aren't this..."
Before he could finish, the bone drill touched the skin.
The drill didn't pierce skin and flesh as expected. The moment it made contact with the skin, a faint ring of blue light glowed at the tip of the drill.
Under the illumination of that blue light, Zeke's skin actually became translucent!
The outlines of his muscles, blood vessels, and bones were clearly visible!
The bone drill passed right through the skin and muscle tissue without causing any wounds, pressing directly against the surface of the humerus.
"Phase penetration technology?!"
Cogboy was shocked. "This... this is cutting-edge technology used by certain factions of the Aeldari. The Imperium of Man doesn't even have this. This System of ours is a bit overpowered..."
The bone drill began its work.
But it wasn't drilling into the bone; it was engraving rings of extremely complex, microscopically indiscernible geometric patterns onto the bone's surface.
With every engraved line, trace amounts of silver-glinting nanoparticles seeped from the tip of the drill and infiltrated the bone's microstructure.
The third mechanical arm deployed its tentacles simultaneously.
Like living metal snakes, they slithered toward other parts of Zeke's body: his spine, ribs, pelvis, femurs...
The ends of the tentacles weren't drills, but even finer probes and injection nozzles.
Using the same phase penetration method, they entered his body, performing micro-level engraving and infusion at critical nodes across his skeleton.
The entire process was exceptionally bizarre.
There was only the faint friction of the mechanical arm joints rotating, and the almost inaudible high-frequency vibration of the bone drill etching.
Lying there, Zeke felt like a piece of precision instrumentation being serviced by a master craftsman.
He could feel those nanoparticles depositing and restructuring within his bones, making the original calcium structures denser and tougher.
He could feel his muscle fibers being scanned and stimulated by a gentle energy field, the alignment of the fiber bundles being micro-adjusted, and the number of mitochondria seemingly slowly increasing.
He could even feel the hematopoietic function of his bone marrow being slightly stimulated by a catalyst, slightly enhancing his blood's oxygen-carrying capacity.
This wasn't brute-force genetic tampering—at least, not as crude as the Chaos mutations or extreme Mechanicus augmentations in the Warhammer universe.
It felt more like... optimization.
The system was utilizing the vessel's own biological foundation, along with the special compounds in the anesthetic, to perform the most economical and safe enhancement.
"No wonder it takes an hour..."
Zeke muttered in his mind. "This is some meticulous craftsmanship."
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Next Goal = 600 Powerstones.